While the Single Market has brought tremendous benefits for European citizens and businesses, the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people hasn’t always operated smoothly. In some areas for instance, there is no truly integrated European market as missing legislation, administrative obstacles, and a lack of enforcement leaves the full potential of the Single Market unexploited. Confidence in the Single Market also needs to be boosted to help stimulate economic growth. Europe must act with more force and conviction to show that the Single Market brings social progress and can be beneficial for consumers, workers and small enterprises. For this reason, the European Commission adopted the Single Market Act – a series of measures to boost the European economy and create jobs.

Single Market Act I

The Single Market Act presented by the Commission in April 2011 set out twelve levers to boost growth and strengthen confidence in the economy. Later, the Commission presented a report outlining the progress made in implementing the Single Market Act.